Windows 8 Tutorials – Part 3

Read our third part about learning Windows 8. This article is part of our Windows 8 Tutorial series.

Disable the lock screen

If you like your PC to boot as fast as possible then the new Windows 8 lock screen may not appeal to you. Do not worry, if you like to disable this then it only takes a moment.

Launch GPEdit.msc (the Local Group Policy Editor) and browse to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalisation. Double-click ‘Do not display the lock screen’, select Enabled and click OK. Restart your PC and the lock screen will be gone.

Install anything

Most mobile platforms recommend that you only install apps from approved sources to protect your security, and Windows 8 is the same: it’ll only allow you to install trusted (that is, digitally signed) apps from the Windows store.

If this proves a problem and you’re willing to take the security risk (because this isn’t something to try unless you’re entirely sure it’s safe), then the system can be configured to run trusted apps from any source.

Log in automatically

Even if you remove the lock screen, you’ll still be forced to manually log in every time your system starts. This can also be resolved at speed using much the same technique as in previous versions of Windows.

Clear the “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer” box and click OK.

Enter the user name and password of the account that you’d like to be logged in automatically, click OK, restart your system and this time it should boot directly to the Start screen.

WARNING: Your Windows account will loose all admininstrator privileges as a result of this configuration.

Replace the Start Menu

If Windows 8′s search and navigation tools still leave you wanting the regular Start menu, installing ViStart will replace it with something very similar.

Download the program and install it, carefully; it’s free, but the Setup program will install the trial of a commercial Registry cleaner unless you explicitly tell it otherwise.

But once that’s out the way, your old Start button will return in its regular place, and clicking it (or pressing the Windows key) will bring back the usual Start menu complete with search box and all the usual menus. The program works well.

There is also Start8 from Windows customization veterans Stardock. It provides functionality to ViStart but with a more up-to-date look.

Windows 8 Shortcut Keys

Below you can find some of the shortcut keys for Windows 8. Here, ‘win’ stands for the Windows Key in your keyboard.

Win : switch between the Start screen and the last-running Windows 8 app

Win + PrtSc : capture the current screen and save it to your Pictures folder

Win + Tab : switch between running apps

Launch programs fast

If you’re a fan of keyboard shortcuts and don’t like the idea of scrolling through app tiles to find the program you need, don’t worry, Windows 8 still supports a useful old shortcut. Which is perfect if, say, you’re looking to be able to shut down your PC with a click.

Launch the desktop app, right-click an empty part of the desktop and click New > Shortcut.

Browse to the application you’d like to launch here. And for the sake of this example, enter

Right-click the shortcut, select Pin to Start and it should appear on the far right of the Start screen – just drag the tile wherever you like.

Intelligent screengrabs

If a Windows 8 application is showing something interesting and you’d like to record it for posterity, then hold down the Windows key, press PrtSc, and the image won’t just go to the clipboard: it’ll also be automatically saved to your My Pictures folder with the name Screenshot.png (and then Screenshot(1).png, Screenshot(2).png and so on).

You might hope that pressing Win+Alt+PrtSc would similarly save an image of the active window, but no, sadly not. Maybe next time.

Photo Viewer

Double-click an image file within Explorer and it won’t open in a Photo Viewer window any more, at least not by default. Instead you’ll be switched to the full-screen Windows 8 Photos app – bad news if you thought you’d escaped such hassles by using the desktop.

If you’d like to fix this, go to Control Panel > Programs > Default Programs and select Set your default programs.

Scroll down and click Windows Photo Viewer in the Programs list.

Finally, click ‘Set this program as default’ if you’d like the Viewer to open all the file types it can handle, or select the ‘Choose default’ options if you prefer to specify which file types it should open. Click OK when you’re done.

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